Less Than Zero

Author: Brett Easton Ellis

Definitely not for the faint of heart, Less Than Zero is so typically Ellisthat you know as soon as you turn the first page that at some point he is going to leave you huddled in the foetal position or rocking back and forth on your heels in a corner. He is a master of the disturbing, throwing it at you as casually as a newspaper is tossed onto your front lawn by the paper boy. I have a love/hate relationship with Ellis’ writing. It’s as addictive as heroin, but also by that same token needlessly outrageous seemingly for the sake of it. There is no doubt though, that he knows what he’s doing.

Less Than Zero follows the story of Clay, newly returned from college and home on holiday. A product of his parent’s disengagement, he drifts from conversation to conversation, carried along by his father’s wealth and a desire for validation, and all set to a back drop of the Los Angeles drug and club scene of the 1980s.

Read this if you like: Books about spoilt rich kids, psychopaths, sociopaths, Brett Easton Ellis’ other novels, the movie, the 80s, stories about drug addiction and cocaine.